Bombay High Court refuses to stay single-judge order restraining Kamaal R Khan in defamation suit by Vashu Bhagnani

A Division Bench of Bombay High Court refused to interfere with a single judge order restraining Kamaal R Khan from publishing, circulating or repeating defamatory tweets and making false and misleading allegations against Bollywood producer Vashu Bhagnani, his family members and his business..Bhagnani had moved the Court with a suit seeking ₹1 crore in damages after coming across a series of tweets by Khan which seemed like a "well-orchestrated smear campaign" against him.The producer claimed that Khan's tweets were made to tarnish his reputation and standing without any cause whatsoever..After hearing the submissions for urgent relief, single-judge Justice AK Menon had restrained Khan from "publishing, circulating or repeating the allegations and tweets and videos" till the disposal of the suit.This order was challenged before Bench of Justices SJ Kathawalla and Milind Jadhav which expressly refused to intervene. .Advocate Ashok Sarogi appearing for Khan, submitted that Khan was a film critic and had merely commented on the films produced by Bhagnani's production company and there was never any intention to defame anybody.He added that Khan was in the habit of reviewing films since he is a film critic and the remarks made in the tweets were on the film..Advocate Rashmin Khandekar briefed by Naik Naik & Co for Bhagnani, opposed the prayer for stay stating there was no urgency in hearing the appeal. He submitted that the order of the single-judge of April 2021, was challenged by Khan in July 2021 before the Supreme Court which was also withdrawn by him.He eventually filed an appeal in September 2021 before the Division Bench of High Court. ."There is no urgency because it is an ad-interim order. The single judge correctly granted injunction because the comments did not pertain to a film critics comments; it was a personal comment (against Bhagnani) and was slanderous. The single judge passed the order after correctly considering those tweets," Khandekar argued. .After briefly hearing the arguments, the Division Bench disposed of the appeal, directing the single-judge to expeditiously hear the suit proceedings within 12 weeks.